Pain Addiction Progress 2009-4
From Clinicaltools.com
Contents |
Project Guide
SBIR Phase II Contract #HHSN271200900003C
ADB Contract No. N44-DA-9-2213
Title: Web Based Training for Pain Management Providers
PI: T. Bradley Tanner, MD
Monthly Progress Report #1 of 24
Reporting Period: 4/1/09 – 4/30/09
Project Period: 4/1/09 – 3/31/11
Pain and Addiction Project Framework
Overview
Phase II for this project is off to a great start. In the first month, we focused on completing curriculum changes recommended by consultants at the end of Phase II and starting to develop the courses, refining the data base of resources, and setting up the website under the new url: PainandAddictionTreatment.com.
Progress During April 2009
Objective 1
Develop Skills Training Content
Courses: Continuing to use the "Action List" developed at the end of Phase I, we finished revising the curriculum outline according to the final needs analysis and consultant feedback. This resulted in moving specific clinical skills among the courses, adding some clinical skills that they felt were missing, and minor name changes to the courses to lessen some confusion about what content would be expected in which course. The new course titles for the four core courses are as follows:
- Initial Assessment: Screening and Assessment for Substance Use Disorders (and Risk) at Initial Evaluation of Pain Patients
- Initial Prescribing: Minimizing Risk of Substance Use Disorders When Initially Prescribing Controlled Substances to Pain Patients
- Ongoing Management: Managing Substance Misuse and Addiction in Ongoing Treatment of Chronic Pain Patients
- Avoiding Diversion: Protecting Your Medical Practice from Diversion Problems
Resources: This month we updated the resources to include new resources published since Phase I. We also continued to build the data base by adding more resources, annotating, and tagging them. We currently have over 120 resources.
How To Guides: In response to needs analysis, we decided to develop succinct, step-by-step guides to key skills used at the interface of pain and addiction. These guides will exist independently of the courses for quick reference, but also will be introduced in the courses. We completed a literature review of recent publications for the first how to guide, which will be on on urine drug testing. Other planned guides will be on patient agreements and DEA regulations.
Standardized Patients: We decided to make the four core courses case-based and use the two clinical applications courses for the online Standardized Patient format. The clinical applications courses are organized by common pain conditions or severity of addiction.
Objective 2
Build Supporting Functionality
Resources
- Resources were added to the site based on needs analysis, including various screening tools.
- A date field was added to the resources content type so that resources may be searchable by date.
- We reorganized the Resources home page and the website's home page to feature the Resources that were named as most important by the consultants and in the needs analysis. Some resources are already available on the website in each of these critical categories, which are as follows:
- Screening and Assessment Tools
- Practice Guidelines
- Referral Resources
- How-To Guides
Technologies
- We compiled a list of desired features for the site. We searched available themes released for Drupal version 6.x in order to find a theme compatible with the desired features.
- Two mockups were created to provide a visual representation of the intended site layout using two different themes. Drupal's Burnt theme was selected based on layout and visual aspects.
- The theme was applied to the site. Several changes were required, including changing the color theme and font size slightly. The column widths were also tailored to fit our content layout. The domain name was changed from http://painandaddiction.clinicaltools.com to a domain we had purchased previously, http://painandaddictiontreatment.com, which was selected based on target audience preference during Phase I.
- Resources and content were transferred to the new site. In addition to these changes, we also added top navigational tabs including "Home," "Forums," "Create a Site," "SP Experience!," "CME," "Resources," and "About." Several other changes were made to the site based on needs analysis results, including adding an FAQ section on the topic of pain and addiction.
- We created course home pages and introduction pages for each course. The course home pages are linked to from the main homepage; their formatting is in development. Finally, we began adding course pages and content for the courses.
Objective 3
Evaluate Curriculum Content
We continued to implement changes based on feedback from consultants during Phase I. At the end of Phase I we developed an action plan based on feedback from consultants and implemented the suggestions that were straight forward and clearly improvements, such as omissions supported by the literature or clarifications of wording. Suggestions that required more processing were deferred until Phase II. In this first month we discussed the remaining consultant recommendations and implemented most of the changes they recommended. For example we decided to include guidelines for pain management in the form of links to external websites, because we continue to see this website's focus as the interface of pain and addiction and do not intend to duplicate excellent resources already in existence. Recommendations for change that came from a single consultant and that did not appear straightforward, will be included as discussion questions when we next request input from consultants.
Objective 4
Evaluate Interface Design (Usability)
Scheduled for July 2009.
Objective 5
Obtain OMB clearance
We reviewed the procedure to apply for OMB clearance to use more than 9 subjects in the summative analysis and began writing the application.
Objective 6
Conduct Summative Evaluation
Scheduled for year 2.
Objective 7
Disseminate Results
We decided to not attend the American Pain Society meeting in San Diego this year due to the need to prioritize our travel budget on conferences where we can present new data and where travel and personnel costs are lower. We attended ASAM's 40th Annual Medical-Scientific Conference at the end of the month to meet with consultants from this project as well as ASAM members and discus what is needed for pain managers at the interface of pain and addiction. Results will be discussed in next month's report. We intend to disseminate our work via the ASAM conference next year since ASAM is a partner in this project and much of the conference focuses on the intersection of pain and addiction. We are preparing an abstract to the American Academy of Pain Medicine for their 26th annual meeting to be held in February 2010 in San Antonio, Texas. The abstract is based on the final needs analysis from Phase I, which was with primary care providers and compares their needs and preferences regarding the interface of pain and addiction to those from the perspective of specialists.
Work to be Performed in the Next Reporting Period
Objective 1
Develop Skills Training Content
Courses: Develop content for a prototype course using the Initial Assessment course. This will include an in depth description of each screening/assessment tool as well as a comparison.
Resources: Continue to build the data base by adding and cataloguing more resources. Develop a taxonomy system for use in a faceted search.
How To Guides: Complete a prototype guide for Urinary Drug Testing
Objective 2
Build Supporting Functionality
Resources
- Add search functionality by key word
- Apply tags to resources
- Add a faceted search functionality using categories and tags.
- Add author and journal information to annotations
- Set up navigation and other functionality for How to Guides and courses
Technologies
- Add more sophisticated mouse over and popup functionality
- Finish an interim home page, attractive and functional enough for use of active resources during development
Objective 3
Evaluate Curriculum Content
Consult with experts as needed while developing course and How To Guide prototypes.
Objective 4
Evaluate Interface Design (Usability)
Scheduled for July 2009.
Objective 5
Obtain OMB clearance
A major goal this month is to apply for OMB clearance to use more than 9 subjects in the summative analysis.
Objective 6
Conduct Summative Evaluation
Scheduled for year 2.
Objective 7
Disseminate Results No activity
Contact
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. I can be reached at (919) 960-8118 or tanner at clinicaltools dot com.
T. Bradley Tanner, MD (President, Clinical Tools, Inc.)
Other Progress Reports
Phase I Pain Addiction Progress • April 2009 • May 2009 • June 2009 • July 2009 • August 2009 • September 2009 • October 2009 • November 2009 • December 2009 • January 2010 • February 2010 • March 20010
